As I dive deeper into my design education, I have come to the understanding that styles are just materialized expressions for consumer response and consumption. One could either adapt it, reject it, alter it, and/or preserve it. Being reared in a capitalistic generation, it is difficult not to be lured by all the prefabricated products that has already shaped our attitudes towards what is "stylish" and what is not. When it comes to interior design though, I am please to say I am slowing being freed from all the Nate Berkus-isms and the "must haves" of Home&Design Magazine.
When I look at a design now, I'm am more drawn to the sophisticated craftsmanship in the details, e.g. the use of colors (or a color, such as the use in different shades of gray), the "feel" of the space, and the holistic composition of the design. With that being said, I embrace style, but I will never use it as an end goal for a design.
It is kind of weird and funny at the same time, but design has allowed me to think in a way that is very comfortable for me. It's like writing a literary composition, but with materials instead of words (and for those that know me, I'm not exactly the best with words...play a game of scrabble with me and you'll see).
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Being in design school has made me fall in love with spaces more than ever before. I use to just look at interior design photographs and get excited by the look. Now I know why I REALLY love spaces. I love the possibilities that a space has to offer to human beings. I love the challenge of designing traffic flow (aka circulation paths and accessible routes), social interactions, and dynamic environments through materials and colors. I love learning about how things are built, maintained, and aged. I love learning about birth and death in the context of materials for building structures and spaces. I love all its practicalities and ideals. I love how it's utilitarian and artistic. I also love it because I feel like I can be myself - that is, finally having a medium to engage, communicate, and articulate all that is going on with people and our world.
In the year that I have been in design school, I have come to love the design process the most because along the way, I meet with God, learn about God, and commune with God during the process. The initial phases may or may not start with God, but He certainly has reveled Himself to me in all the big and small ways.
I am not studying interior design to be a designer. I love interior spaces, and I love encountering God through the process of design, and so I am studying interior design. I don't care to be "the" designer, now or even in the future, but I am learning what it means to be one - and it's been a blast!
